Peter Gago, chief winemaker at Penfolds, explains why the Australian wine giant’s commitment to China is for the long haul. Rebecca Lo reports.
Peter Gago, chief winemaker at Penfolds, and Penfolds winemaker Shavaughn Wells were in Hong Kong on 22 August to host a re-corking clinic in the city.
Held at the Sky Lounge in The Upper House hotel, the session, like all of Penfolds’ re-corking clinics, offered local collectors the chance to have their Penfolds red wines over 15 years old opened, assessed, topped up, certified, re-corked and re-capsuled as required.
Gago explained that the event was about much more than putting a new cork on an old bottle.
“Re-corking introduces theatre and animation,” he said following a vertical tasting of Penfolds Grange across three decades. “Collectors are handing over family heirlooms that involve financial and inheritance decisions.”
Gago noted that re-corking clinics “speak to a wine city’s maturity”.
Since the first clinic in 1991, Penfolds’ winemakers have assessed over 250,000 bottles across four continents. Clinics in 2025 have been held in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide. Across North Asia, previous clinics have included Guangzhou in 2019, Hong Kong in 2017, Beijing in 2014 and Shanghai in 2013.
Peter Gago: ‘The learning curve in China has been very steep’
Shavaughn Wells, penfolds winemaker, assessing wines at a Recorking Clinic
These clinics highlight Penfolds’ longstanding dedication to the China’s wine market, even before the producer began making wines on Chinese soil.
Treasury Wine Estates-owned Penfolds released the first Chinese Trial Wine (CWT) 521, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Marselan, in 2023 and contained a blend of grapes from five different Chinese locations.
While the first bottles coming out of Penfolds’ estates in Yunnan and Ningxia over the past couple of years may not yet be mature enough to warrant clinical review, Gago said he continues to be impressed by their quality.
“I was in Shangri-la (Yunnan) just a few days before arriving in Hong Kong,” Gago noted. “It is a time honoured process that we taste blind—and we do so in China, too,” he continued. “I remember thinking: am I in Bordeaux or am I in China? And that thought encapsulates everything we need to know about China. Just a few decades ago, people didn’t even want to sniff a wine from China much less taste. The learning curve has been very steep.”
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